# Original author: Ryan Kirkpatrick
-# $PostgreSQL: pgsql/contrib/start-scripts/linux,v 1.9 2009/08/27 16:59:38 tgl Exp $
+# $PostgreSQL: pgsql/contrib/start-scripts/linux,v 1.10 2010/01/11 18:39:32 tgl Exp $
## EDIT FROM HERE
# Where to keep a log file
PGLOG="$PGDATA/serverlog"
+# It's often a good idea to protect the postmaster from being killed by the
+# OOM killer (which will tend to preferentially kill the postmaster because
+# of the way it accounts for shared memory). Setting the OOM_ADJ value to
+# -17 will disable OOM kill altogether. If you enable this, you probably want
+# to compile PostgreSQL with "-DLINUX_OOM_ADJ=0", so that individual backends
+# can still be killed by the OOM killer.
+#OOM_ADJ=-17
+
## STOP EDITING HERE
# The path that is to be used for the script
case $1 in
start)
echo -n "Starting PostgreSQL: "
+ test x"$OOM_ADJ" != x && echo "$OOM_ADJ" > /proc/self/oom_adj
su - $PGUSER -c "$DAEMON -D '$PGDATA' &" >>$PGLOG 2>&1
echo "ok"
;;
restart)
echo -n "Restarting PostgreSQL: "
su - $PGUSER -c "$PGCTL stop -D '$PGDATA' -s -m fast -w"
+ test x"$OOM_ADJ" != x && echo "$OOM_ADJ" > /proc/self/oom_adj
su - $PGUSER -c "$DAEMON -D '$PGDATA' &" >>$PGLOG 2>&1
echo "ok"
;;
-
+
Server Setup and Operation
this (consult your system documentation and configuration on where
to look for such a message):
-Out of Memory: Killed process 12345 (postgres).
+Out of Memory: Killed process 12345 (postgres).
This indicates that the postgres process
has been terminated due to memory pressure.
PostgreSQL on a machine where you can
be sure that other processes will not run the machine out of
memory. If memory is tight, increasing the swap space of the
- operating system can help avoiding the problem, because the
- out-of-memory (OOM) killer is invoked whenever physical memory and
+ operating system can help avoid the problem, because the
+ out-of-memory (OOM) killer is invoked only when physical memory and
swap space are exhausted.
- On Linux 2.6 and later, an additional measure is to modify the
+ On Linux 2.6 and later, it is possible to modify the
kernel's behavior so that it will not overcommit> memory.
Although this setting will not prevent the
url="http://lwn.net/Articles/104179/">OOM killer> from being invoked
sysctl -w vm.overcommit_memory=2
or placing an equivalent entry in /etc/sysctl.conf>.
- You might also wish to modify the related setting
- <literal>vm.overcommit_ratio>. For details see the kernel documentation
+ You might also wish to modify the related setting
+ <varname>vm.overcommit_ratio>. For details see the kernel documentation
file Documentation/vm/overcommit-accounting>.
+ Another approach, which can be used with or without altering
+ vm.overcommit_memory>, is to set the process-specific
+ oom_adj> value for the postmaster process to -17>,
+ thereby guaranteeing it will not be targeted by the OOM killer. The
+ simplest way to do this is to execute
+echo -17 > /proc/self/oom_adj
+
+ in the postmaster's startup script just before invoking the postmaster.
+ Note that this action must be done as root, or it will have no effect;
+ so a root-owned startup script is the easiest place to do it. If you
+ do this, you may also wish to build
PostgreSQL>
+ with -DLINUX_OOM_ADJ=0> added to CFLAGS>.
+ That will cause postmaster child processes to run with the normal
+ oom_adj> value of zero, so that the OOM killer can still
+ target them at need.
+
+
+
Some vendors' Linux 2.4 kernels are reported to have early versions
of the 2.6 overcommit sysctl parameter. However, setting
feature is there. If in any doubt, consult a kernel expert or your
kernel vendor.
+
* Copyright (c) 1996-2010, PostgreSQL Global Development Group
*
* IDENTIFICATION
- * $PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/backend/postmaster/fork_process.c,v 1.10 2010/01/02 16:57:50 momjian Exp $
+ * $PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/backend/postmaster/fork_process.c,v 1.11 2010/01/11 18:39:32 tgl Exp $
*/
#include "postgres.h"
#include "postmaster/fork_process.h"
+#include
#include
+#include
#include
#include
setitimer(ITIMER_PROF, &prof_itimer, NULL);
#endif
+ /*
+ * By default, Linux tends to kill the postmaster in out-of-memory
+ * situations, because it blames the postmaster for the sum of child
+ * process sizes *including shared memory*. (This is unbelievably
+ * stupid, but the kernel hackers seem uninterested in improving it.)
+ * Therefore it's often a good idea to protect the postmaster by
+ * setting its oom_adj value negative (which has to be done in a
+ * root-owned startup script). If you just do that much, all child
+ * processes will also be protected against OOM kill, which might not
+ * be desirable. You can then choose to build with LINUX_OOM_ADJ
+ * #defined to 0, or some other value that you want child processes
+ * to adopt here.
+ */
+#ifdef LINUX_OOM_ADJ
+ {
+ /*
+ * Use open() not stdio, to ensure we control the open flags.
+ * Some Linux security environments reject anything but O_WRONLY.
+ */
+ int fd = open("/proc/self/oom_adj", O_WRONLY, 0);
+
+ /* We ignore all errors */
+ if (fd >= 0)
+ {
+ char buf[16];
+
+ snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "%d\n", LINUX_OOM_ADJ);
+ (void) write(fd, buf, strlen(buf));
+ close(fd);
+ }
+ }
+#endif /* LINUX_OOM_ADJ */
}
return result;